U.S. military launches integrated EHR

Apr 23, 2009

The U.S. Military Health System (MHS) has launched the first global integrated electronic medical and dental record. AHLTA-Dental -- part of the military's electronic health record (EHR) system -- officially went live last month.

A total of 377 dental facilities and nearly 11,000 users will receive the new integrated version of AHLTA (Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application) over a two-year deployment period. Initial training will be provided through a suite of Web-based, instructor-led and on-the-job training tools.

AHLTA-Dental is designed to enable dentists to record patient encounters electronically and use graphical charting tools to record a patient's oral conditions, disease, and treatment needs, according to Col. Page McNall, D.D.S., chief dental officer at the MHS. The application also supports the charting of complete dental treatments, including teeth cleanings and periodontal, endodontic, and prosthodontic evaluations and treatments.

"The beauty of the AHLTA system is that we have one health record for all in the military and their beneficiaries," Col. Page told DrBicuspid.com. "So the dentist and physicians are documenting in the same records. As the dentist I can log in and see the patient's entire health record. A lot of our patients are very healthy, but we are also treating wounded from the war zone. So it is critical that all providers have visibility of patient information."

AHLTA is "fantastic at capturing all of the point-of-care information and graphics," she added. "You can, at a glance, see the existing restorations, the problems, and what needs to be treated."

AHLTA is designed to support 102,900 dental procedures, 642,400 outpatient encounters, and 2.2 million prescriptions per week, according to the MHS.

"We capture a massive amount of data from a very large population, so we can track trends, even in materials used," Col. Page said. "This is good, practical data that is sharable globally. In the military, we have different needs from the commercial systems, such as ensuring readiness. And I think we've done more with our diagnostic codes (than the commercial EHRs)."

The medical record component of AHLTA initially rolled out in 2007. But recent news reports indicate the military is still working out the bugs. MHS officials have confirmed that on March 24, for example, "there was a brief disruption in the Clinical Data Repository [intended to store 9.2 million medical records] resulting in approximately an hour of connectivity issues with AHLTA."

As a result, the MHS reportedly no longer plans to store all its EHRs in a single repository.